Climate change solutions
We deliver game-changing environmental solutions that have a real impact for people around the globe.
Featured
Our impact
For more almost 60 years, we have been building innovative solutions to the biggest environmental challenges — from the soil to the sky.
Featured
About us
Guided by science and economics, and committed to climate justice, we work in the places, on the projects and with the people that can make the biggest difference.
Featured
Get involved
If we act now — together — there’s still time to build a future where people, the economy and the Earth can all thrive. Every one of us has a role to play. Choose yours.
Featured
News and stories
Stay informed and get inspired with our in-depth reporting about the people and ideas making a difference, insight from our experts and the latest environmental progress.
Featured
    • EDF Health

    Chemical Concerns – Insights on Air Pollution, Public Health, and Chemical Safety

    We are what we eat: New paper outlines how the regulatory gaps in the US threaten our health

    Posted: in FDA, Food, Health science, Perchlorate, Public health

    Written By

    Sarah Vogel
    Sarah Vogel

    Share

    Sarah Vogel, Ph.D., is Vice-President for Health.

    In a new paper published in PLoS Biology today, Maricel Maffini, Tom Neltner and I detail the regulatory gaps in how the US manages chemicals in food. We explore how failures in our current regulatory system put the public’s health at risk as exemplified in the case of perchlorate, a chemical allowed in food and a well-known endocrine disrupting compound. Perchlorate’s ability to disrupt normal functioning of the thyroid means that even low levels of exposure, especially in those with inadequate iodine intake, can adversely impact the developing brains of infants and children. It is not a chemical that should be in the food of pregnant women, infants and children. And yet it is, and the levels children consume have increased in recent years.

    Nearly sixty years ago, Congress passed the 1958 Food Additive Amendment to the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act that gave new authority to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ensure the safety of chemicals in food. The American diet has changed considerably in the intervening decades, and today there are more than 10,000 chemicals allowed in food for use in processing, packaging, and transporting. And while Congress intended that companies test chemicals before using them in food and the FDA address chronic health effects and cumulative exposures to chemicals in the food supply when considering safety, in reality, safety assessments of chemicals in food are woefully inadequate.

    EDF is working to make safer food available for all. We’re urging corporate leaders to improve the safety of food additives, and together with allied organizations, we are committed to strengthening the law and modernizing the current regulatory system to remove hazardous chemicals from the food supply. Protecting the most vulnerable from hazardous chemicals is a common goal that we should all be striving towards to build a safer and healthier future.

    Related Posts